Actions taken now will determine Lincoln’s future

Sunday

Jul 22, 2018 at 12:01 AMJul 22, 2018 at 12:51 PM

The Lincoln City Council this week welcomed Elizabeth (aka “Beth”) Davis-Kavelman back to the fold at City Hall. Pardon the cliché, but that brick building, the center of Lincoln’s government at the corner of Broadway and Pulaski, could easily be described as her old stomping ground.

Davis spent 16 years there as a part-time employee, transcribing via shorthand city council meetings and converting them into official minutes of the proceedings. At her tenure’s outset, Lincoln boasted 14 aldermen. She became so enamored with the trappings of City Hall that she decided to try swapping her clerical duties for an elected position. In 2001, voters agreed that would be a good career move and elected her mayor, a position she held for two terms, until 2009. By then, following the dictates of state law, which regulates the size of a city council based on population, the city council was reduced to 10 aldermen.

Since then, the membership of the council has been cut again, to today’s eight representatives. That’s not all that’s changed at City Hall. Davis-Kavelman’s successor at the helm of city government, former mayor Keith Snyder, led the council a few years ago into hiring its first city administrator. Shortly thereafter, the council’s committee structure of government crumbled. Many of the aldermen’s duties, including handling complaints from constituents, was assumed by the administrator’s office.

The handful of Lincoln citizens who do pay attention to the workings of their city government clearly didn’t like the move. Time and time again, opponents of the city administrator’s office said power was taken from the aldermen they elected to represent them and placed in the bureaucratic administrator’s office. Although she’s lived mostly out of town during the years Lincoln has had a city administrator, Davis-Kavelman concurs with that opinion.

“I think you lose some of the checks and balances when you take away the committee structure,” she told Courier reporter Jessica Lema on her first day in the new position. Former administrators (Lincoln has had three) wielded “unlimited power with the council and the mayor, and I’m not going to do that. … I don’t believe that one person ever needs to control city coffers.” If the size of the paycheck is indicative of the level of authority, Davis-Kavelman won’t have the power punch employed by her three predecessors, who were paid more than $70,000 a year. Davis-Kavelman is hiring on at $50,000.Before voting to hire the new administrator Monday, some aldermen expressed a desire to change the position’s job description before filling it. That didn’t happen, but Davis-Kavelman, officially on the payroll Tuesday, told The Courier she would help aldermen explorer forming some type of hybrid government, something that might include the current way of doing things but somehow reverting back to a committee structure.The new administrator did express an eagerness to delve into economic development efforts, an arena city officials have pretty much ignored in the past several months. Last week, in discussing the possible hiring of Davis-Kavelman, Mayor Seth Goodman brought up that very issue. With the local chamber of commerce taking a nosedive and slamming its doors shut and Main Street Lincoln no longer in existence, businesses interested in coming to Lincoln have no starting point, said the mayor. Not only that, the city dropped out of a countywide economic development organization months ago, and it’s been six months or so since the city had an administrator on staff that might possibly interact with prospects.With Main Street Lincoln and the Lincoln and Logan County Chamber of Commerce splintered, bruised and battered to the point hopes for revival simply don’t exist, Lincoln desperately needs that “starting point” to bring new business – and jobs – to the city. Without growth, Lincoln will continue to decline, or at the least stay stagnant.Why is that important to John and Jane Q. Public? It’s rather simple to understand. Despite a lower population and fewer private sector jobs, Lincoln City Hall does not seem inclined to respond with decreased spending, vis-à-vis a new police station and now, talk of buying property to house a new fire station. That means revenue needs (translated: the hunger for more tax dollars) go up or at best remain steady, but the individual tax burden grows since there are fewer taxpayers to feed the city’s desires.I’m inclined to side with residents who, over the past few years, have complained the position of city administrator came with too much power and robbed city council members of their involvement in city government. I’m also convinced the city has veered far off track by not maintaining an aggressive economic development effort. Business, in general, seems to be enjoying good times these days, but only those communities who reach out and the ones that are prepared for growth will benefit from the boom.Lincoln simply isn’t there. It needs to be.I wish the mayor, city council members and now Beth Davis-Kavelman much luck as they attempt to move in a new direction. Where will Lincoln be in 10 or 20 years? Decisions and actions taken today will determine Lincoln’s fate.Dan Tackett is a retired managing editor of The Courier. He can be reached at dtackett@gmail.com.

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